It’s now VERY early on Sunday morning.  I’m winding down to go to bed . . .

But, It’s now Mother’s Day, so I am giving a shout-out to all you mothers out there!

This year, this holiday means somthing more to me than ever before.

I always appreciate my mother.  I owe a lot of my spiritual life to the nurturing she provided as I was growing up.  She offers a great bit of knowledge and wisdom to my life even as a grown adult.

But this year, my wife is becoming a mother. Since we believe that life begins at conception, the little baby Katie growing inside of Emily’s womb makes Emily a mother.  Happy first Mother’s Day to you, Emily!

Emily is going to be a great mom.  One of my favorite special little things I did for Emily was to write each verse of Proverbs 31 on a post-it note, along with an explanation of how I believed she lived out that verse.  It then hid the post-its all over the house.

One huge example is how she manages our household.  We went to Casey Graham’s ReThink Money seminar today.  One of the suggestions is to eat at home more.  We made that decision a while ago.  Since then, Emily has found several HEALTHY, VERY good, filling meals that she can make for us that are EXTREMELY BUDGET FRIENDLY.  If you want to save money by eating at home more, but aren’t a savvy cook . . . none of Emily’s recipes take more than 40 minutes to make, and they are generally between $6-$12 per 4 servings (That’s $1.50-$3.00 per person!)  Yeah, so if you need help, my wonderful wife would be more than willing to offer some suggestions!

Off to bed.

Call me I’m strange, but I honestly love the church.  I hear excuses from people all the time as to why they don’t go to church.  If I believed even half of these excuses were really a legitimate excuse to not go to church, I would have been out the door a long time ago.  Allow me to go off on a Pauline rant for a moment.

• As a grade-school kid, my “best friend” at church threw my bible in a puddle because he got mad at me for something.
• As a teenager, after sharing feelings of loneliness with a friend, he blatantly laughed at me when I was left out of a group of guys at a church function.
• In college, a ministry leader told me he didn’t think I really fit in and asked me why I didn’t just leave.
• In seminary, I was known as the “black sheep” because I wasn’t like the other guys around me.
• After seminary, a pastor flat out lied to me when he told me he was going to hire me for a position and then hired someone else a few weeks later.
• I’ve known pastors who poured 20+ years of their lives into incredibly fruitful ministry at a single church only to have it burn them out and they walk away.
• I walked a personal friend through the pain of losing his ministry to a moral failure, and going through a long process of restoration to a slightly less dynamic ministry.
• I’ve had mentors get so enamoured with a theological idea that they chase the single idea until it totally dries up their spiritual walk with God.
• I’ve had friends who hold a theological position that allows them to blame God for a moral failure and completely walk away from ministry, God, and the church.
• I’ve been spit on for my faith.
• I’ve had my faith questioned by supposed church leaders.
• I’ve dealt with people content with a Sunday Morning faith.
• I’ve had dry times when I wondered if God even existed.
• I’ve been frustrated when I sense a direction for my life that just doesn’t seem to ever pan out.
• I’ve had friends molested by church leaders, and had to help them deal with the pain years later.

In spite of all this I LOVE THE CHURCH.  There has only been 1 time in my life that I honestly wanted to leave the church.  I wanted to give up and just walk away.  That lasted for a total of about 30 minutes.  As I got thinking about all the things I could do just because I wasn’t going to be a Christian anymore, I realized I had no desire to do any of them . . . Which made me realize that God has really totally reshaped me to be in His church and to love His church.

You may think I’m crazy . . . But the Bible never tells us that the church would be perfect.  Nor does it tell us that we should expect God’s people to act perfectly all the time.  In fact, the Bible tells us that God is still working on the church and each of us.  The Bible teaches us that God is “sanctifying” the church to become a “pure spotless bride.” But we’re not there yet.  We shouldn’t expect to be.

Besides, as much as the church has “done to me” over the years . . . If I’m humble enough to admit it . . . I’ve been the one to hurt other peoples’ feelings off an on.  I’ve also been guilty of making someone feel out-of-place.  I’ve stretched or hidden the truth a couple of times to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.  I’m not any more perfect than anyone else.  That’s why I still need the church!  I need the church to help me continue to become a part of the pure spotless bride.

So, are you letting some other imperfect person from your past keep you from fully experiencing life in Christ through His Body, the Church?

Hey folks,  I just read a cool story that will rock your world.  What if all of us looked at the “bad” situations in life like this guy?

http://forefrontchurch.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/a-guerrilla-lover/

Hey Journey Folks!

If you missed it, you missed it!  We gave away over $1,000 in the service yesterday.  The only catch:  give away the money you got and tell us about it on THIS WEB SITE.  Emily and I are already brainstorming ideas of what we are going to do.  I can’t wait to hear everyone elses’ stories!

We’re also signed up for the ReThink Money seminar.  If you haven’t signed up yet, call the church office RIGHT NOW!  Time is running out, and this could totally change your life.

Growth Groups are going to ROCK this week.  Exciting things are happening. Auburn will never be the same.

I’m also pumped about our new series starting this Sunday.  It’s mothers day  . . . the ONE Sunday of the year any mother can convince her husband and/or sons to come to church.  Who are you going to invite.

I met one of my new neighbors yesterday.  Talked about getting together to barbeque sometime.  New neighbors means new opportunities to get to know folks and share God’s love.  Cool stuff.

Oh my goodness!  It’s almost 2:30am and I just finished the Travel Guide for this week!  A little extra work tonight, because we several groups are having first-time Discussion Leaders this week.  I am really pumped to see what God is going to do.

• I’m pumped because I know what’s going to happen during the service in the morning.
• I’m pumped because JourneyKidz is starting a new series and I like the graphics for this one much more than the last series.
• I’m pumped because I’m thinking through ways to simplify the setup in JourneyKidz while improving the end product.
• I’m pumped because first-time Discussion Leaders means potential new Growth Group Leaders!
• I’m pumped because new Growth Group Leaders means more Growth Groups!
• I’m pumped because Emily says Katie is moving around noticably now.
• I’m pumped because Emily and I had an open and candid conversation about taking our marriage to the next level.  Even great marriages can be improved!

Well, I managed to get out of bed, make Emily breakfast, and run around the lawn with the lawnmower before it came . . . but it came.

We’re in this crazy cycle lately of beautiful weather throughout the week, with some form of rain on the weekend.

Emily is hanging out with a friend watching some scary movie, so I’m getting an unusual earlier-than-normal start on the Growth Groups material for this week.  We have something truly awesome planned for tomorrow, so I’m really pumped to see how everyone reacts.  What we’re going to do has the potential to not only change the lives of folks at Joruney, but to genuinely change our city.  It’s going to be awesome.

It’s actually a good thing I’m getting started a little early.  Emily and I realized last night that we forgot to get the backdrops ready for JourneyKidz’s new series.  That means we need to take another run all the way to Montgomery to finish getting stuff printed out.  I sent most of it to the office in the middle of the night, but we still need to go pick it up, bring it home, and put it together.  We wanted an excuse to go to BabyDepot at Burlington Coat Factory, anyway.  Oh well.  Not so fun with gas prices where they are.

It’s just after 5pm on a Wednesday evening.  Ordinarily, I would be trying to shut down my computer to begin the treck back to Auburn from Montgomery.  BUT, today I am already in Auburn.

I like to work from home . . . but today’s reasons make it much less exciting.  I don’t usually have allergies and related issues to deal with.  BUT, my sinuses are majorly messed up . . . So instead of going to Montgomery after Journey Staff meeting, I came home to work for a little while so I could go to the doctor and get some drugs.

I’m worn out.  I hope I start feeling a little better tomorrow.

Whine complete.

It’s after 5pm on a Tuesday night . . .

That means I’m winding down at the office and looking forward to Growth Group tonight!

We’re probably gonna have a full house tonight.

I’m pumped.

Here’s a quick recap for Sunday night:

• The band rocked this morning.
• We had a pile of stuff in the seats.
• I had to talk through all the stuff during the welcome.
• Was glad to see a few people back for 2nd & 3rd time.
• Pumped to see some relationships growing — makes us “sticky.”
• I almost went “MAD” this morning.
• I think I should have.  It would have fit the series.
• I don’t think I should have.  It wouldn’t really fit me.
• “Relating” to our money got me thinking about some stuff.
• My wife is the cutest pregnant lady ever.
• Katie is the cutest fetus ever.
• Vince’s T-Shirt book has me thinking about some stuff.
• I’m wondering if my theology has created excuses for my complacency at times.
• If it has, my theology is way wrong.
• I think I’ve dropped the ball on a few things lately.
• I need to regroup a little this week.
• I managed to run 3 days last week.
• My knee is hurting a little, and I think I need new shoes.
• I’m gonna try to get up and run tomorrow anyway.
• Emily and I are starting to research baby stuff.
• We started a Target registry.
• Several Growth Groups are really starting to do well.
• I’m going to be real sad when Growth Groups wind down for the semester.
• I really look forward to our Growth Group each week.
• I’m about to challenge some folks to step up to the plate and lead our Growth Groups for a week or two.
• We need some more Growth Group Leaders and Host Homes for the fall.
• If it doesn’t happen, it’s my fault.
• I’m going to be a daddy.
• I’m going to be a daddy?!?!?!?!?!?
• I’m thinking I should spend the next 16 years at the shooting range getting ready for that first boy to ring our doorbell asking to see Katie. . .
• If Katie is as cute as her mother, it probably won’t take 16 years, which is even scarier.
• I had a great conversation about Baltimore and Church Planting with one of our newer couples this morning.  I hope it challenges them as much as it is me.
• Crazy week ahead of me this week.
• Hopefully some important decisions on some major projects will be made soon.
• “Pithy Perceptions” is a really brainy way to say, “I’m having an ADD night and my brain is all over the place.”

Hey folks!

I went with Emily to have a sonogram done yesterday.  WE’RE HAVING A LITTLE GIRL!

I am SOOOOO excited.  I woulda been cool with a boy or a girl, but deep down I really wanted a girl first.

SOOOOOOO . . .

Say hello to Katie Kulp!

If you want to see more photos, look for the album on my facebook.